a) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to improvement in roll-baler of a type, which conveys materials of short length, such as harvested and shredded farm product for fodder, or the like, into a bale chamber mounted on a machine frame to be shaped and packed into a roll-bale, wherein the machine body is not provided with a pick-up device for picking up the material for shaping such as harvested fodder product, etc., but, instead, there is mounted a hopper for receiving such fodder product to be shaped into the roll-bale, so as to receive into this hopper the fodder materials in short length, which have been harvested and shredded by a foliage harvester, and then the fodder product is gradually taken out of the bottom part of the hopper and fed into the bale chamber by way of a transporting conveyor to be formed into the roll-bale.
b) Description of Prior Arts
FIGS. 1 and 2 of the accompanying drawing in this application illustrate different configurations of roll-balers, which receive into the hopper the abovementioned shredded material for fodder in short length to be shaped into the roll-bale.
The first roll-baler A shown in FIG. 1 is in such a construction that a connecting rod 10 provided on the front end side of the machine body 1 is joined to a connecting hitch provided on the vehicle body of a towing car such as tractor, etc. to be pulled by such towing car, thereby constructing the roll-baler in a pulled-type configuration.
This towing type roll-baler A is of such construction that a hopper 2 for receiving materials of short length for shaping such as harvested and shredded fodder product is mounted on the upper surface of the front face side of the machine body 1; then a transporting conveyor 3 for moving the shaping material supplied from a discharge port 20 provided at the bottom part of the hopper 2 in the rearward direction of the machine body 1 is mounted at such a position that it may be inclined downwardly toward the rear direction; and a bale chamber 4 to shape and pack the material for shaping to be transported rearwardly by means of the conveyor 3 is mounted at the rear part of the machine body 1 with its position being downwardly inclined toward the rear direction, whereby the bale chamber 4 is made in a configuration of its receiving port “a” being upwardly inclined to become opened frontward, and the short fibrous material sent thereinto through the receiving port “a” may rotate circumferentially within the bale chamber 4 so as to suppress outflow of the fodder material from the receiving port “a” when the material returns to the receiving port; for making it possible, the contact surface between the front chamber 4a of the bale chamber 4 and the rear chamber 4b rotating backwardly with a pivotal axis S being made as the center may take a slant position with its upper end side being inclined rearward of the machine body. And, in an open-mouth harvesting on the outer surrounding of the field at the initial stage of the harvesting work, or an intermediate harvesting work in a large-scale field, supply of the shaping material to the hopper 2 mounted on the machine frame has been done as shown either in FIG. 3 or FIG. 4: that is to say, the material feeding in FIG. 3 is effected in such a manner that the material of short length for shaping such as fodder product, which has been cropped and shredded by the harvester H, mounted on a separate tractor T from the tractor for pulling the roll-baler A, and discharged from this harvester H is received by a bonnet wagon W to be mounted on the tractor T; and, as soon as a predetermined quantity of the crop has been accumulated, the bonnet wagon W is inverted, thereby enabling the shaping material to be thrown into the hopper 2 which is mounted on the machine frame 1 of the roll-baler A; or the material feeding in FIG. 4 is effected in such a manner that the material of short length for shaping, such as fodder product which has been cropped and shredded by the harvester, is placed in a loader bucket B provided in the tractor T, and this loader bucket B is positioned above the hopper 2, which is mounted on the machine body 1 of the roll-baler A, followed by opening the bottom of the loader bucket B to thereby throw the shaping material into the hopper 2. In the ordinary harvesting work, two different systems have been adopted, i.e., (1) a system of directly blowing into the hopper 2 the shaping material which has been cropped and shredded by the harvester H mounted on the lateral side of the tractor T for pulling the roll-baler A, and to be discharged therefrom; and (2) a system of blowing into the hopper 2 the shaping material which has been cropped and shredded by the harvester H mounted on the separate tractor T from the tractor for pulling the roll-baler A, and to be discharged therefrom, while the tractors are running together side by side.
The roll-baler A shown in FIG. 2 is of a self-travelling or crawling type, which is constructed with the machine body 1, on which the hopper 2, the transporting conveyor 3, and the bale chamber 4 are mounted. This machine body 1 is provided with a driving engine and a steering system Y to be actuated by the engine. On the front face side of the machine body 1, there is mounted the foliage harvester H, by which the material for shaping the roll-baler, as cropped and shredded, is caused to be thrown into the hopper 2.
In this self-travelling type roll-baler, too, the transporting conveyor 3 and bale chamber 4, which rearwardly convey the material of short length for bale shaping to be discharged from the discharge port 20 in the bottom part of the hopper 2 mounted on the machine body 1, are both mounted on the machine body 1 in their position of being downwardly inclined toward the rear direction.
Since the roll-baler A of the configuration, which is not equipped with the abovementioned pick-up device, but accommodates the material of short length for shaping the roll-baler, as cropped and shredded by the harvester, into the hopper 2 is primarily intended for the material of short length for shaping the fodder product, or the like, in its shredded form, it has a problem of being expensive in its manufacture, because, as already mentioned above, since the transporting conveyor 3 is downwardly slanted in the rear direction, and the bale chamber 4 is mounted on the machine body 1 at the position of its receiving port “a” being upwardly slanted in the forward direction, if and when the rear chamber 4b of the bale chamber 4 is caused to be rotated toward the front chamber 4a for its closing, on the center of a pivotal axis S, the closing motion becomes stiff to make it difficult to shut, while its opening motion becomes smooth and easy. As the consequence, the lock mechanism must be made more intensified or more complicated.
Also, there is another problem such that, since the hopper 2 for receiving the material of short length for the roll-baler shaping is made to have a certain definite volume, if and when the shaping material as harvested by the circular cutting system, at the time of the mouth-opening work, where the fodder product or the like shaping material is harvested by means of the foliage harvester H, is loaded on the bonnet wagon W or the loader bucket B, which is then thrown into the hopper 2 of the roll-baler A at its fixed position, it becomes impossible to charge its total quantity at one time, owing to shortage of the volume capacity of the hopper 2, on account of which the material feeding becomes intermittent or batch-wise to deteriorate the working efficiency.
From what has been described above, there is still other problem such that, unless the roll-baler is attached at the back of the tractor machine body so as to be pulled by it, no efficient work can be secured in the “one-man” controlled operation.
There is still further problem such that a bridging phenomenon is generated within the hopper 2 to make it difficult to feed the shaping material as cropped and shredded into the bale chamber 4 at a certain definite quantity, if and when shaping material, which has been harvested and shredded by the foliage harvester, is thrown into the hopper 2 of the roll-baler A by means of the bonnet wagon, the loader bucket, and so forth, then the shaping material is sequentially discharged from the discharge port 20 of the hopper 2 to be forwarded into the inlet port “a” of the bale chamber 4 through the transporting conveyor 3.